The Feathered Warrior
by Madfantasy
Summary: Kuja was resurrected and 'blessed' with a... smaller.. body by a fairy godmother, who sent him off to an uncharted island to 'upkeep peace and justice! thanks to Chaoswings for help in editing! 7th Chapter coming up soon !
1. Resurrection

The Feathered Warrior  
  
By madfantasy  
  
  
  
Heya readers, this is my first attempt at humor and multi-chapter stories … please R&R ! ( I'm trying to get Kuja to be IC (in character)… I hate OOC most of the time, so please give me some advices and remarks so I can improve on portraying Kuja's personality (and my writing skills too)! Thankew thankew!  
  
  
  
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Chapter 1: Resurrection  
  
  
  
The void between heaven and hell was as dark as a starless night sky. All was quiet and motionless, and not a sound was to be heard.  
  
Kuja opened his eyes, but it didn't quite make any difference. It was just as dark whether he closed his eyes or not. He was floating and drifting within a mass of black space, with no edge or form. Even gravity did not seem to exist around him.  
  
"Is this hell?" Kuja raised a hand to rub his forehead, which he was glad to feel, and muttered to himself.  
  
Just then, as quickly as he had asked his rhetorical question, a small lump of light appeared before his eyes. It grew and grew until it was about the size of two of Kuja's head (feathers and all), and started to spin and morph into the shape of a little fairy. Her hair was blonde, and her eyes were as blue as the sky. She was plump, with ruddy cheeks and wore a simple but oversized (even for her plump body) robe, which draped over her like a heavy curtain.  
  
"I am the Fairy Godmother!" the little plump fairy declared, waving a magic wand with a star-shaped head, "and this is neither heaven nor hell. Zis is the Void where the soul goes to before being dropped into hell or being blown away into the heavens!"  
  
Kuja tilted his head, letting the long feathers on his hair fall from the left to the right side of his face. He half expected a yawning pit to open at that moment beneath his feet and drop him into the fiery underworld where the mean and evil went.  
  
"Wee, the fairy council had decided to let you have another chance to live, since you were sorry for what you had done. Furthermore, an irresponsible father made you. We had charged him with negligence and locked him in the freezing chamber for the time being until we can come up with better punishments."  
  
All of a sudden, a loud, menacing boom rolled throughout the space. A sphere of gray sparks and lightning begun to form in the blackness ahead of Kuja and the Fairy godmother. It was the Void Monster, out to hunt down souls of those who refuse to go into Hell or Heaven but linger about for too long in its realm.  
  
"What is that?" Kuja said, pointing towards the gray mass, but the Fairy Godmother was feeling far too panicked to explain. Grabbing Kuja by his collar, she flapped her wings desperately and flew in the opposite direction, just in time to prevent Kuja's soul's toes from being snapped off by a massive set of gray jaws. All Kuja could do was stare wide-eyed and thank the deities that he still had his feet.  
  
"Abbacadebrraa!" The fairy godmother waved her wand frantically till Kuja worried that the star head might fly off. And suddenly, POOF! They were out of the dark void and fell butt-first on some bushes growing a distance from the Iifa tree.  
  
Relieved, the two stood up and brushed themselves off. The Fairy Godmother, remembering her purpose, quickly explained Kuja's situation to him. The Fairy council had given him a chance to live again, but not in any land that he had familiarized himself with. Instead, he was to travel far away into the ocean and land on a distant unknown, uncharted island to "upkeep justice and maintain peace", for many criminals and monsters lodge themselves there when they got sick of being disturbed or prosecuted.  
  
A looming shadow came over Kuja when the Fairy Godmother explained his job in a long rattle. He looked back, but the stuff that made the shadow was backlit by the piercing noon sunlight. Lifting his head, Kuja lost his balance, tripped over something behind him and fell into the matronly bosom of the Fairy Godmother. Agitated and flustered, he leapt backwards with many a sincere apology.  
  
A naughty, evil little snigger came from behind the sorcerer's back. Looking back, Kuja almost tripped again, for he was looking into the face of a hedgehog pie ... above him.  
  
"What is this?!" He asked in a very annoyed tone, giving his pretty silver hair a little flip as he did so.  
  
"Aah," the Fairy Godmother exclaimed, "I almost forgot. Due to the massive killings and destructions that you had brought about, we are now lacking the materials to make new bodies of infants for the souls, which means you will have to make do with a new but smaller body."  
  
It took even the intelligent sorcerer sometime to grasp the meaning of the godmother's word, and when he finally gets it, he muttered something like 'this cannot be' and raced across the grassy ground to a nearby puddle of water. Looking into it, he almost passed out.  
  
"How lovely, just like a sweet little child," the Fairy Godmother aww'ed and cupped her face with a hand, letting out a dreamy sigh at the adorable little sorcerer.  
  
"What is the meaning of this?!" Kuja said. He was devastated first by the Big Bad Void Monster, followed by the Hedgehog pie, and now him.  
  
"Now now, my dear child, I had made it pretty clear. You should be grateful for what you have and not act like a spoilt brat or Santa will not give you any presents for Christmas!" the Fairy Godmother explained patiently.  
  
"But i don't want a Christmas present!" Kuja said, stomping a foot, then covered his mouth, shocked and surprised to have said such a thing. Not only was he looking like a little child; he was beginning to act like one! He had never spoke in this manner all his adult life.  
  
"Worry not about your height and size," the Fairy Godmother said, "and mental age, these are but little setbacks to your new body that you must adapt to. It is the heart that matters," she said, poking Kuja in the chest, "you will grow up, and the more good deeds you do, the faster you will be able to regain your original shape! Or unless, you want to stay in the form of a child?"  
  
"Certainly not," Chibi Kuja said, restoring his composure and manners. He bowed slightly to the Fairy Godmother for his rudeness and backed down while Fairy Godmother beckoned the hedgehog pie to go away. In his mind he was terribly miserable at being so puny, but he did not show it. The hedgehog pie walked away as Kuja swam in his deep thoughts, looking back at Kuja occasionally as if he looked delicious. Maybe because of his feathers. Kuja wondered how he would survive in a small body like this.  
  
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Madfantasy: well, how was it? This is only the beginning! :D please write me a review or two because I really want to portray Kuja's personality IC- ly, and do tell me how you think of this fic so that I can improve on it! 


	2. The journey ahead

THE FEATHERED WARRIOR  
  
By Madfantasy  
  
  
  
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Chapter 2: The journey ahead  
  
  
  
"Please remember that now that you are small as a little child, it would be easy for you to catch a cold and get sick. Mind your P's and Q's. Eat and sleep well and don't forget to finish your greens, and keep your sweet tooth in check. Groom your feathers and silver tresses or they will look dirty …"  
  
The Fairy godmother gave Kuja a long but well-meant speech on how he should take care of himself and look like a nice well-brought up gentleman.  
  
After educating the little sorcerer, she waved her wand and a gigantic (to Kuja) white down feather appeared in a puff of silver smoke. It hovered quietly, not touching the ground at all, emitting a silver glow visible to the eye even in the mid-day sun.  
  
"This will be your one way transportation," Said the fairy godmother, gesturing at the white fluffy thing, as she bade Kuja to step on board. Our feathered hero did just as the fairy godmother said, and sat obediently upon the feather. The fairy godmother tossed a silver-grey robe at Kuja.  
  
"Keep this well, and it shall be much help to you!" The Fairy godmother said, "Do not worry, this magical feather will bear you to the exact location that you are supposed to land on. Bon voyage! May the stars and moon guide your path well with their lights! "  
  
The fairy godmother waved her wand gently, as if conducting a soft piece of orchestra ensemble, and the giant down feather lifted off smoothly. Kuja looked around to catch a last glimpse of the Fairy godmother but the feather took off so rapidly the Iifa tree now appeared like a mere bush on the distant ground.  
  
The mid-day sun shone happily, and the sky was clear, high and blue. Although the feather seemed to be flying at quite an amazing speed, there was only a warm and soft breeze against his cheeks. Looking up, strands of white clouds seem to be reachable by touch. As soon as the feather passed over the clear blue ocean flocks of sea birds started to fly and sing around him. The earth below him passed and soon gave way to an entire stretch of glittering blue.  
  
After admiring the scenery and enjoying the company of the seabirds (which seemingly thought Kuja was one of their less feathery cousins), our little hero felt drowsy in the comfort. He soon dozed off on the flying feather, with his Silver-grey robe in his lap.  
  
  
  
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It was neither the increasingly cool wind, nor the coming of the dark that woke Kuja. It was hunger.  
  
It was indeed a very loud grumble that came from his stomach. As he remembered, the last thing he had eaten was a miserable roast yan (a small cow like monster) the night before he went off to Terra. He wondered if he would have thrashed Zidane if he had taken his breakfast. After all, people who eat breakfast lives longer than those who don't.  
  
Looking around, he caught sight of a flaming sun half sitting in the western horizon. The ocean shone like gold sprayed with silver glitters, and the sky was splashed with lavish red, gold and pink lights, which faded into a light lilac and navy in the distant eastern sky, where night had sprung up. The wind blew through his silver tresses, lifting them from his shoulders.  
  
Looking down, Kuja saw an egg-shaped island that he supposed he was to land on. It was large and round, but small compared to the endless ocean that surrounded it. Beautiful reefs surrounded the island for miles, making it unreachable for ships, and the waters just beyond its shores was dotted with small, sandy islets, with space barely enough for small clumps of coconut trees.  
  
Feeling his intelligence return, Kuja did what he thought would be the most important thing to do: observe the island from his strategic location in the air. He knew that it would be a long time before he would be able to fly, even if he could hatch a chocobo and wait for it to morph its way into a flying one.  
  
There was a small village at the smaller, sharper tip, with at most fifty families. In the middle of the island there was a huge canopy of dense forest, some covered with mist, and decorated here and there with bare grassy hills. A few rivers ran meandering from a small chain of mountains sat in the middle of the green clump, their tips smeared with white snow. There was a larger city at the blunt end, which actually ends in tall, rocky cliffs, but this too, was covered with a thick blanket of fog. Kuja couldn't look anymore because the light was so dim it tired his eyes terribly.  
  
Before he could see more, however, the feather dropped suddenly, as if its magical ability to fly suddenly disappeared (this is, of cause, no true).  
  
"!!!!!" He thought as he was dropped like a lead ball. He hung onto the feather-stock for dear life and continued to do so even after the feather had landed surprisingly gently at a white sandy beach outside the small village  
  
The terrified little sorcerer had to stare into empty space for a minute or two to recover from his shock after landing.  
  
Finally stepping off, Kuja clutched his cloak around him, trying to block out the chilly winds that were swooping around. The feather disappeared in a puff of silver smoke as soon as the tip of his foot touched the floor, and our little feathered sorcerer fell backwards onto the sand.  
  
Standing up, Kuja dusted himself off with dignity. He threw his robe over his head and did the only sensible thing: walking towards the entrance of the small village, which was marked with a large wooden banner, stuck in the sand, and painted with some black sticky stuff that said "SKAERPEKOE VILLAGE".  
  
Just as he was meters from the entrance, Kuja spotted a shadow in the darkness of the unlit streets. He looked ahead, but was not able to see who or what made it. It seemed to tower over the little sorcerer. The sky was now a deep navy, casting a dark violet light across the realms. Feeling a little ominous, he readied his lightning spells at the tip of his finger.  
  
  
  
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Madfantasy: thanks for reading. More chapters will be appearing as soon as I can finish them. : I know my chapters are rather short, but I cannot work with long chapters. Please review, and thankew for all your supports!  
  
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	3. The Skaerpekoe Villagers

Madfantasy: I'm terribly sorry for the long uh, time gap … I have my own selfish reasons. Sorry, gomen ne! *Bows 170 degrees* Anyway, here's chapter 3 of our Feathered Warrior, enjoy !  
  
  
  
THE FEATHERED WARRIOR  
  
Chapter 3  
  
  
  
Our two feet tall, brave, heroic, slightly tense Feathered hero stood like a miniature cowboy in the middle of the street.  
  
Kuja peered in the evening light, trying to figure out what the shadow was. His instinct told him that it was a monster, and it was good that he was right, because he was poised for defense as soon as the hulk approached him.  
  
An enormous fin raised out from nowhere and would have gave Kuja a good flattening slap if he hadn't leapt away in time. As with all his battles with monsters, he habitually stuffed two fingers in his mouth and whistled for his silver dragon. He then raises his hands into the sky and uttered some words. At that instant a tendril of lightning appeared from the sky to strike the monstrous shadow.  
  
"A Whale Zombie!" he muttered to himself. This monster was a gigantic heap of bones, and quite a big challenge for Kuja to tame in his past glorious days even when he was larger in size.  
  
The lightning bolt seemed too do nothing in deterring the black shadow from attempting to eat our feathery sorcerer. It raised a gigantic fin and gave little Kuja a good THWAP, sending him flying into the sky. And before Kuja realized and remembered that his silver dragon was dead, a GIGANTIC chocobo raced out from nowhere in response to his whistle, just in time to cushion his fall.  
  
Kuja rode on the huge yellow bird, his face buried in its huge wings. He didn't know what was going on except that villagers seemed to be running out to put down the monster. He rode on, stuffed and tucked into the wings and tail of the large bird.  
  
He couldn't figure out how long he was stuck on the feathery bird, being bounced up and down by its strides as it ran down the dark pavement. His head was stuck, and he couldn't see anything. He had totally lost his sense of direction. Finally the bird seemed to step into a lighted house and he felt himself bursting into light.  
  
Trying to free himself at first, Kuja decided to lie low and observe his surroundings to the best of his abilities. He seemed to be in a small room, and there were quite a few people in there. From their voices Kuja figured that they were mostly males, but he heard some female voices. There was a lot of commotion going on in the place. Suddenly the sound of someone stepping in was heard and the room quieted down, probably because the newcomer was a person of some importance.  
  
A muffled voice was heard, and there were many greetings. A pitched female voice, seemingly that of a girl, stood out amongst the low voices.  
  
"Daddy daddy, look! Choco has a feather sticking out of its butt."  
  
"Well, maybe it's a flyway feather. Pluck it out if you think Choco won't like it." Came the reply.  
  
Just then, Kuja felt something yanking at his head. His feather was sticking out from the Chocobo's back. He scowled indignantly. As Kuja was being retrieved, he felt the someone who was dragging him out fall backwards, and he landed on whoever it was.  
  
"OooOOooOOh, a teddy bear!" the little voice came from behind his head squealed with joy.  
  
"Watch it!" he demanded in his chibi voice, "that HURTS!"  
  
At once all sounds from within the room died. All heads were turned towards the little sorcerer, who was trying to thwap the hand who was being mean to his hair.  
  
"A TALKING teddy bear!" the voice said again, holding little Kuja under the arms as you would hold a little cat or puppy.  
  
"I am NOT a teddy bear!" Kuja screamed angrily at the one who was holding onto him.  
  
"Put him down, honey," the man at the door said. He looked around the age of fifty. He was an extremely tall man whose skin had been tanned by the sea and the sun. He looked like a tribal leader. Kuja was put back on the ground. He ruffled his feathers and sniffed at his poor hair.  
  
"What are you?" Someone said. Turning around, Kuja realized that it was actually a little girl, looking no more than thirteen years old, standing a little more than twice the height of little Kuja. She squealed happily when she saw Kuja turned around, her light brown hair shining in the lamp light.  
  
"Address him as a who, honey" the man corrected the little girl.  
  
"O-Kay. Who are you?" the little girl said sweetly.  
  
Kuja brushed himself and tried to look dignified. Looking up at the excited girl, he bowed with as much courtesy as he wished to display.  
  
"I am the sorcerer Kuja, brought back to life by the fairy godmother."  
  
The population of the room gasped. A small commotion rippled through the air, with people whispering and saying "the fairy godmother!" with surprised and impressed voices.  
  
"So you are the little one that our fairy godmother had sent us," an old woman sitting at the back of the room spoke in a thin, jagged voice. She was extremely thin and old, and her face was wrinkled. She held a perfectly round crystal ball in front of her, and she was the most lavishly dressed in the room, wearing a flowing silk dress decorated with embroideries, and a beautiful translucent violet scarf was donned on her forehead. A light of great wisdom and intelligence shone in her eyes.  
  
The old lady wore also lots of bangles on her hand that jingled with her every movement, and three thick gold necklaces hung around her thin neck. Kuja realized that she must be someone important. A bald old man sat next to her, dressed equally richly.  
  
"Welcome, little one," the old lady said with a nice smile, "I have received messages from the fairy godmother herself that she would send us someone to be our peace keeper."  
  
The tribal leader guy at the door walked towards Kuja. "Several months ago a band of bandits had taken over our village. They kidnapped our mayor and threatened us with his life. We tried many means to infiltrate and spy them, but were unsuccessful. They seemed to have a very high number of guards and intelligence that are unknown to us."  
  
The little girl came forward and scooped Kuja up and cuddled him like a teddy bear, "that's why daddy will send us to destroy them!" she said excitedly.  
  
"Yes. My grand-daughter is very talented when it comes to magic, and she surpasses many older students in our village." The old lady said, "you will infiltrate the town tonight, find the location of the mayor, destroy the dens of the bandits, and burn their sorry behinds so hard they would want to run home whining to their mother!"  
  
The group of people in the house applauded and cheered, while the old lady stood up, curtseyed and smiled to her supporters.  
  
Kuja slapped his forehead and wondered how he was going to survive. 


	4. Night Strike !

The Feathered Warrior Chapter 4  
  
Madfantasy: heya heya !! I've finally released the latest chapter of THE Feathered Warrior ! Wheee ! I'm so sorry for taking so long, but better late than never, right ? I've already got the next two chapters plotted and planned out, so I'd write em out as soon as possible !  
  
(Chibi Kuja floats out from Madfantasy's imagination bubble) Chibi Kuja : Bow to me, the greatest Sorcerer of Terra and Gaia ! Mwahahah, I'm always so charming. (Smiles to himself and grooms in front of a mirror) Madfantasy: Aww. so sweet. (huggles the stuffings out of the little thing) Go back to Skaerpekoe, you little darling, the readers are waiting.  
  
Presenting the long awaited The Feathered Warrior, Chapter 4 !  
  
Madfantasy: How was that ? More will be coming up, you hang in there !  
  
Chibi Kuja: Of cause.  
  
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Night Strike --------------  
  
Unprepared and largely impromptu, Kuja set out with the little girl. The night was very dark and chilly when they made their way into town. They sneaked in the shadows, cast by the silvery moonlight upon the sandy floor. The sky was almost an empty blackness except for the new moon and three or four weak stars.  
  
Looking around, Kuja noticed that the buildings in the area were all rather short, with the tallest block at about four or five storeys high. The rest of the village houses were built like terraces about two to three storeys high, and they were mostly built on stakes to prevent the high tide from flooding the interiors. The ground was gently sloping upwards like an incredibly flat hill.  
  
The central, tallest block, which sat at the highest point of the village, was made with stone and something that Kuja thought was clay cement. Some buildings that they passed were made of bamboos and other type of strange natural materials that the sorcerer had never seen before. As Kuja followed the small girl, he had to squint hard to make out her shadow-like form, even though she was just a few pace ahead.  
  
They slipped quietly along one long row of shop houses and stopped under a window.  
  
"Here, go in!" the young lady gestured towards the wooden hut. They creep up a few wooden steps and onto a timber path just outside the house.  
  
Kuja reached up to climb in. In doing that, he rolled off the windowpane and tumbled into the house. The girl entered easily through the gaping doorway. Settling under the windowpane, with their backs against the wall beneath the window, Kuja on the left and the girl on the right, the two small people began to make some plans. She dropped a rolled scroll on the floor between the both of them.  
  
The bakery shop was deserted. Constructed entirely of wooden planks, it consisted of a neat square-shaped room with a large door in the middle of the far wall where they were facing. Two rows of empty glass and wood display units sat at either side of the room, made to allow customers to sight the rows of products on their sides as they enter. They were sitting near one of the display units. There were also several cupboards and a cashier's counter at a corner of the room close to the entrance.  
  
"I haven't gotten to know your name yet!" Kuja said, as he rubbed his sore back. He growled under his breath for disgracing himself in such an anxious situation.  
  
"I'm Elfia, and my daddy's is really smart." Elfia boasted, her voice full of pride.  
  
"I'm Kuja, the greatest Sorcerer on the face of Gaia and Terra, and my daddy is an idiot." Kuja used the exact same tone that Elfia did. He wondered if Garland could even be considered his daddy at all, but since his old friend Sarcasm was tickling his tongue, he couldn't help but mock a little. Garland was an idiot anyway, he thought, a Dead idiot at that, probably shivering pitifully in the Fairy Council's Freezing chamber right now. He scoffed to himself.  
  
The two looked at each other in silent amusement for a few moments before they realized that they shouldn't be wasting time. Simultaneously, they turned their heads towards the floor at the rolled scroll. Elfia unrolled the parchment scroll, showing the map of Skaerpekoe to our sorcerer.  
  
The brownish paper contained a rough sketch of the layouts of the village, drawn in dark green crayon. It depicted coconut trees, sandy beaches, a sun and long rows of houses, arranged in a big square. Inside that, rows were built facing each other and arranged in the general shape of a cross. One arm of the cross opened towards the entrance of the village. In between the spaces were a few scattered small huts. In the middle of the cross were a few big boxes marking several isolated but seemingly important buildings. The red crayon marks there read "Skaerpekoe Square."  
  
"This is my rough sketch of the Skaerpekoe Village," explained Elfia, "This is the town square." She said, pointing at the middle of the cross where the seemingly important buildings were marked. "And we call each side of the village by the direction it faces. The entrance of this village faces west, and we are in a building on the West Street," she continued, pointing to a row of houses, "We're in Aunt Beeker's Bakery shop."  
  
Nice name, Kuja thought sarcastically.  
  
"We are supposed to find out where the bandits are hiding, flog them, and do something to their leader so that they won't come back."  
  
Kuja pondered the map for a while, trying to come up with some plans. He lifted his little right hand and curled his fingers under his chin, just as he used to whenever he went into some serious calculating when he was 'bigger'. Perhaps they should mutilate the bandit leader's face, or shave his hair bald. Any sensible being ought to be aghast at such distortion of himself... but wait, maybe that only apply to The Great Kuja.  
  
"Don't stare at me," he mumbled as Elfia stared at him for a rather long time, her eyes big, round and almost immobile.  
  
"O-tay." She sat down and watched Kuja, fascinated by the cute small thing that he was.  
  
Just as the outlines of an assault plan made their way into our clever Sorcerer's head, a muffled outburst of laughter made both of them jump. They scurried like mice to a corner of a house and hid behind the cashier's counter, Elfia almost squashing Kuja by diving into position. A thin beam of orange light sliced through the opening of a door.  
  
The pungent smell of alcohol drifted out.  
  
"What noise was that?" someone snarled in a gruffly voice. The person at the door looked around. They must have heard the sound when Kuja fell into the shop.  
  
"Nuthin' boss," the man responded, "just a cat chasing a mice!" he then mimicked the sound of a cat being chased away. Several others in the room roared with laughter as the man at the door retreated into the light and closed it, leaving Elfia and Kuja in the shadows.  
  
Immediately, the two tiptoed towards the door like cunning little pixies. Just as Elfia reached the door, Kuja accidentally tripped over a protruding nail's head in the loose floorboard and fell flat on his face, hands outstretched. The floorboard that he and Elfia were on flipped around and dumped both of them onto the sandy packed ground under the floor. Enlightened of the duo's weight, it creaked, flipped back and fell into its original place with a slap.  
  
"What was that noise!" the drunken voice of the Boss came through the door above. "It was a cat, I tell you!" another voice said. Soon Kuja and Elfia heard uneven but noisy steps, as though the boss was dissatisfied with the answer and had moved to investigate. The door was shoved open and it slammed roughly against the wall, sending bits of woods flying into the air. The disgruntled man looked around, took a long drink from a large green whisky flask in his hand, burped and moved back in, shutting the door as gently as he had opened it.  
  
"Well done, Kuja!" Elfia whispered happily, "now we can spy on them easily!"  
  
She was on fours, looking up at the floorboard, which was around a foot above her head. Kuja stood with ease and rubbed his nose with unmatched fury. "Miserable piece of metal!" he declared, "Offensive obstruction! How dare it cross my path?"  
  
Kuja snuck stealthily across the floor (grumbling as he did) after Elfia. They moved silently over the packed ground and stopped when they were right under the room where the men were. A yellow light overflowed the room and filtered into the bottom in thin strips through the floorboards. Looking up through a small space between two of the boards, Elfia grinned. There were three men, one in brown clothes, the second in gray, and the last in black. Their boss, so drunk with his alcohol, was dozing off on an old chair. In a matter of minutes, he was snoring loudly.  
  
"Look, Kuja!" she hissed softly, "That big bad punk, he's what we're looking for! Once we've got him, we can thwap all the rest easily!"  
  
Just as she spoke, an old woman shuffled into view. She was thin and frail, looking like an old gnarled willow tree in a plain faded yellow dress. She wore a pair of small silver-rimmed glasses and her snowy white hair was tied to the back of her head in a small bun. A red wool scarf was around her neck, protecting her from the midnight chill.  
  
"It's the village baker," Elfia explained very softly, "She's really famous for the cakes she make!"  
  
The man in gray stumbled over to her. Obviously, the three followers of the boss were drunk, too.  
  
"Hurry up already!" He hollered demandingly at the old woman, "You'd better make your cakes as soon as possible! Or else, we'd burn down your miserable shop!" He then shoved the old woman roughly and growled.  
  
"How vile of them to do that!" Kuja growled. It was definitely way beyond his gentlemanly nature to be physically rude to others. (Perhaps partially due to his feminine physique...?) Most of the time, he'd rather order redundant troops of dumb black mages to carry explosives to any offensive person's house during a family dinner and just destroy about fifty houses in the vicinity in the convenient process. Sometimes huge fire spells work really well, too, but then he'd get tired of instructing those slow- learning, puny mages.  
  
Even as the bandit spoke, a strong fragrance of baked flour and butter filled the room. The aroma drifted through the cracks in the floorboard and assaulted our Sorcerer's nose. He felt hungry and realized that he hadn't eaten a meal in two days. A loud rumble came from his stomach as it complained of the aroma around it.  
  
"What was that?" the man in brown leapt out of his seat, shocked by the strange sound.  
  
As the man in the brown clothes leapt up, he tripped over himself. Falling on his side, he landed on several loose boards, which flipped around and dumped him onto the packed earth where Kuja and Elfia were. The boards then swung back into their positions after the weight was deposited.  
  
"Did you give out gas, Pig?" the other two hooted in their drunkenness and roared with laughter.  
  
The man in brown crawled on his fours in confusion. He was a dirty, obese man, clothed in filthy shirts that used to be white, but were now yellow, and a big brown overcoat. His pants were torn in several places. His face was caked with brown dirt, and his hair was a in a mess. His shoes stank, and he reeked of alcohol.  
  
"Filthy hog," Kuja murmured.  
  
"He does look like a pig as they said, don't you think, Kuja?" Elfia giggled.  
  
"Worse, I reckon," Kuja snickered evilly.  
  
The drunk caught Elfia's remark. Getting angry, he threw his beer flask at her, narrowly missing. He made a lewd remark about Elfia's family in incomprehensible foul language.  
  
Meanwhile, Kuja, deciding that he had humiliated his grace too many times for the night, made up his mind to redeem his image. After all, he had always been majestic, elegant and charming, so he thought, and thinks still. He did not appreciate the man's impudence to a lady. He walked between Elfia and the man, stood steadily, legs slightly parted, hands on hips and ready for action.  
  
"Your smell offends my senses." Kuja stated, sounding extremely haughty. He slapped the man on his face with a piece of driftwood he had found on the floor, causing him to stop wide-eyed with shock. He had thought that Kuja was a plush toy. Kuja made a sarcastic face and mocked that he had dirtied the poor piece of wood. He said in elaborate, flowery vocabularies something that was supposed to be 'politely' rude, while the man stared blankly at him.  
  
"Maybe I should pick on someone with my brilliance, intelligence and honor." Kuja crooned, partially to himself, "My remarks are superflorescent. I do not think that he even has a percentage of my wisdom to understand what I say! My intelligence is meant only for great minds like mine. And I have the greatest mind here."  
  
Lewd remarks above the floor joked that the Man in Brown Clothes had been eaten by a whale, as Kuja was caught in praising himself. The fat man regained his senses. His eyes bulged with apparent anger as he turned his focus on our Feathered Sorcerer who started peppering his fury with his sarcastic words. As the fat chap tried to catch Kuja, he scuttled agilely away. He could stand to his full height of one foot and ten inches and run however he wished to. Finally, he decided that he had enough of playing cat and mouse with the big man.  
  
"Undeserving lowlife, Think you deserve to touch but a hair on me?" Kuja proclaimed as he dodged skillfully when the man pounced towards him. He ran at the man's face as the big dude landed on his stomach. Then, poising sophisticatedly just for a fleeting moment, leapt and round-housed the man in the eye with the bottom of his high-heeled boot with a sickening squish.  
  
Meanwhile, in the hidden hamlet by the sea, Elfia's daddy and grandmother were reading by the oil lamp. Some other men and women were with them, eating bread peacefully when they heard a horrific, screeching wail slicing through the quiet of the night. Everyone raised his or her heads at the direction of the howl.  
  
"My, what was that, I wonder." Elfia's daddy said.  
  
"Sounds like a sick hog giving birth." the old lady remarked, while everyone nodded, and went back to his or her business.  
  
"Well done, Kuja!" Elfia praised excitedly.  
  
"Thank you for your praise, my lady," Kuja replied in elegance. The man's hand reached up weakly, trying to grab Kuja and punish the mean little him, but the dignified sorcerer stood his ground, raised his piece of driftwood, smacked it on the fat guy's forehead and clobbered the man out cold without turning. He then bowed gracefully, tucking one hand in front of his tummy, looking just like an adult.  
  
"That's one down and three more!" Elfia applauded for Kuja as she smiled happily.  
  
  
  
  
  
Madfantasy : Well ? How was it ? I hope you've enjoyed reading it ! I've got the next two chapters planned out and writing them shouldn't be a problem. Meanwhile, please don't forget to reward me with a few reviews ! :3 


	5. Mission, Half Accomplished ?

Madfantasy: Ello !! Here comes chapter 5 of "The Feathered Warrior" !! XD Hope you enjoy it ! Life's been pretty messed up lately, but well, the story shall continue !! Please Read and Review, thanks ! :3  
  
p.s: due to some technical perror which occurred while I was trying to get my friend to edit, please bear with me if there are any atrocious grammatical and/or whatever errors. Please do inform me about any of them ! Also, I'll be attempting a change of style for the next chapter of The Feathered Warrior. For now, please enjoy the adventures of our Little Kuja !  
  
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The Feathered Warrior Chapter 5  
  
Therefore, our feathered warrior and his newfound friend Elfia got rid of one of the filthy, dirty snorting-like-a-pig followers of the boss of the bandits who had kidnapped Skaerpekoe's Mayor!  
  
Now, back to our brave, impish little villain, the elegant Kuja with feathers on his head...  
  
The man in brown clothes lay on the floor, out cold.  
  
Elfia took one of Kuja's little arms and raised it above his head. She then raised a hand in the same manner and slapped the sorcerer's upturned palm before letting it go.  
  
"What's that about?" Kuja asked, tilting his head to the side, his hair- feather bending from one side to the other.  
  
"It's called a Booga slap. In Skaerpekoe, we do this when we're doing a great job!" Elfia smiled. Kuja looked at his palm and raised a silvery eyebrow.  
  
Above head, in Aunt Beeker's bakery, the man in grey shirt didn't notice that his companion was gone. The one in black shirt was now pacing back and forth impatiently, waiting for Aunt Beeker's bread and cakes to be removed from the oven.  
  
"Hey, you old maid! Is the food done!" The man in black shirt growled rudely in the old lady's face. He kicked the door of the oven roughly and loudly.  
  
Very suddenly, Aunt Beeker produced a large umbrella from the corner of the room. She swung it at the man's face and slammed it there. Kuja could hear it swoosh. There was some crunching noise, and then the guy fell over unconscious. Aunt Beeker gave the body a nudge with a foot.  
  
"That will teach you not to kick my oven!" the seemingly harmless maid scoffed and placed the umbrella back in its original position, then continued to watch over her bakeries. She mumbled to herself in a thin voice as she did that. "Oh, my poor bakeries! I wish these foul men don't get to eat my delicious bakeries!"  
  
Elfia giggled softly under her breath. "Aunt Beeker's tough, you know, you should never judge people by their looks."  
  
She then eyed the man in grey clothes, who had shuffled out of the baking room "for a toilet break", he said, obviously thinking that his friends were still there to listen. Grabbing Kuja suddenly like a plush toy, she dashed to follow him, moving noiselessly under the floorboards. She watched as the man tumbled down the stairs outside the door and walked into a nearby bush. She poked Kuja.  
  
"Psst, Kuja,"  
  
"What?" Kuja said impatiently. He doesn't like being poked. He's more used to poking his subordinates and annoying them when their works didn't meet his expectations.  
  
"I have an idea,"  
  
"Speak," Kuja said grumpily. He doesn't like being poked around, and it took him a great effort to release himself from the unpleasant effects of that experience. Maybe the mood swings were just a few side effects of trying to adapt to his mini body.  
  
"Go out there and tap the nice mister on his knee when he's done with his business. Then run as ghostly as you can towards that tree," Elfia whispered quietly, pointing towards a small cluster of palm tree just next to the entrance of the bakery, "I've got a plan," she grinned.  
  
"Right," Kuja stood up and dusted himself clean despite the fact that he was quite immaculately clean already. There were two specks of dust on him and he found them rather unpleasant.  
  
"I, the sorcerer who dominated the World, have to go at a gangster who is severely drunk, unclean and busy with his toilet break." he mumbled, but went ahead anyway. He remembered his heydays, when he gloried in the sun upon his magnificent silver dragon, Silver.  
  
Being mean was much easier, and definitely more interesting. He wasn't poked, he didn't have to kick bandits in the eye and dirty his shoes, and he didn't have to walk around in a mini body. Kuja knew he was far too mature for whining. He was 24 when he died, and he knew when he died that he wished he had done more in his life, and the Fairy Godmother had gave him a chance.  
  
The man in grey suit stared at Kuja intensely. Kuja woke up from the swimming trip in his thoughts and blinked for a second before remembering what he was supposed to do. He looked up, threw up his arms and tried to look scary. The man in grey fell over laughing and rolling about on the floor.  
  
Never need to do this when I was big... Kuja thought. He had no experience of physically scaring people. He didn't used to need to do much except to command fear with his very presence. He thought hard.  
  
Kuja's intelligence didn't fail him. He lowered his arms and attempted to look like the eerie big Kuja who commanded fear with his very presence.  
  
The man in grey recovered from his laughing fit. Kuja glared as icily as he could in his adorable, diminutive body. He had been too cute lately. He must rediscover the nastiness and wickedness in him.  
  
"Yes, what is it, little one?" he inquired before falling over into another whooping laughing fit.  
  
"I was ... sent by the Great Fairy Godmother, and I command that you come with me!" Kuja said, faltering ever so slightly in his sentence. Kuja growled in his head. If he were big Kuja, he would have grilled this insulting man over a slow fire in the middle of a troop of annoying Hedgehog Pies. Nevertheless, destiny had it that he couldn't even cast a proper lightning spell to zap a Whale Zombie. So be it.  
  
Kuja turned and trotted away ever so weightlessly, his white dress-like garment flowing behind him, making him look as if he was floating in the dark. The drunken man stood and followed perplexedly. Just as Kuja reached the clump of trees and made to look as if he disappeared, Elfia, hidden behind the trees, cast a sleep spell on the man in grey. He collapsed into a sleeping heap right there and then.  
  
"Let's go get the last one!" Elfia commanded and dashed straight into the bakery shop. Kuja followed closely, his mind working intensely on how to be nasty even in his smallness.  
  
Running back into the bakery shop, Elfia made a beeline for the back door. Bursting in, Elfia greeted the old lady passionately.  
  
"Aunt Beeker!" Elfia said happily as the old lady turned to smile at her. The boss was snoring loudly on his alcohol.  
  
"Sweet little Elfia," the old woman bent down to plant a petite kiss on the young girl's forehead.  
  
"That's Kuja, sent by the fairy godmother!" she said, pointing to Kuja who had just come through the door.  
  
"Oh, how adorable!" the Aunt Beeker went forward and gave Kuja a small kiss on the forehead, then pinched his cheek slightly. Kuja tried not to protest.  
  
"I dropped sleeping pills into those men's drink containers. How are you going to take care of him?" the old maid inquired.  
  
"Let's tie this guy up and bring him back to my daddy!" she said as Aunt Beeker dug up a length of rope and handed it to her. Kuja helped by flipping the inert body onto his stomach and putting his hands at his back for Elfia to tie. The man was heavy.  
  
The sound of a group of rowdy men approached just as Elfia and Kuja were about to push the sleeping body out on a small trolley.  
  
"Oh no, they're returning from their nightly hunt!" Elfia gasped, "Old Madame's crystal ball told us that they always go out of Skaerpekoe to hunt animals for fun every night. We have to get away before they catch us!"  
  
The two then pushed the trolley away as quickly as possible, but then it seemed that the bandits were coming from both the town's main entrance in the south and from the forest in the North! They made a hasty turn westwards and sped into a narrow dark alley, just as the men caught sight of them.  
  
"Get them!" the mob shouted and made awful warlike noises. Kuja caught a glance of a troop of people moving in for them.  
  
"Follow me!" Elfia said as she took over the trolley. Kuja hopped onto the sleeping man's back. The men were catching up with them, and Elfia ran into a dead end.  
  
"I thought you knew the way!" Kuja said as he turned to eye the approaching mob. He wasn't panicking or anxious, and a voice in him told him to trust the young girl, so he blinked calmly at Elfia.  
  
"I do!" Elfia said as she dragged the man from the trolley, "Come, quick!" she dashed behind a few piles of stacked items near the dead end. Kuja followed, and saw that Elfia shoved the man down into a huge manhole and jumped in herself.  
  
"No way!" Kuja gasped in shock.  
  
"Yes way! You've got to come in or they will catch you!" Elfia shouted from the bottom. Kuja winced. He closed his eyes, pinched his nose and jumped down the slippery black chute. He slid down quite a distance and landed on his legs beneath. Keeping his balance he managed to prevent himself from toppling over into a puddle of water.  
  
They were inside a dark underground chute. The violet sky could be seen above his head through a round opening. He tried to make some light, casting the most basic spell he knew. Waving a finger, he created several small fragments of light, which collide to form a ball of faintly glowing orb floating above his head. Looking up, he realized that the top was very high above his head, and the sewer was very wide, enough to fit in many whale zombies side by side. Several smaller chutes led into the big gutter where they were in.  
  
"This is one of the drainage chutes in Skaerpekoe, it's used to remove tide water and sometimes household wastes. Good thing we haven't been in the village for about a week now, it's quite clean here for now, so don't worry." Elfia tried to make the miserable Kuja feel better, but Kuja's immaculate nose picked up wisps of strange odours still.  
  
"There, let's go up that ladder!" Elfia pointed towards a metal ladder at the opposite end of the gutter. The duo dashed across the sewerage, treading across shallow puddles of water as they did so. In the dimness, Elfia took the unconscious gangster by the ropes around his hand and lifted him as she climbed up, with Kuja supporting the man's knee below. The ladder shook, vibrated and creaked with their every movement, and Kuja was rather disturbed by that. He told himself not to look backwards. Many bits of rust scrape off and fell away as they climbed,  
  
It took a while to reach the top with the burden upon them, but they did so finally with effort, and found themselves at another section of the town. "Come!" Elfia said as she lifted the man across her shoulders in a manner called fireman's lift and treaded quickly towards what seemed like a warehouse. As the moon hovered just above the tips of the coconut trees, the streets were rather dark.  
  
While Elfia moved stealthily away from the canal opening, Kuja turned around after a few paces and walked back to the round hole. He peered through it curiously with his oval blue eyes and tilted his head.  
  
Seven men were struggling to climb up the metal stairs in pursuit of them. As Kuja was too short, they couldn't see him from below. Kuja tapped his foot slightly, waiting for a mean idea to come into his head. He hummed a song softly as he did that. Soon the head of the first pursuer appeared within a feet of Kuja's boot tips. Kuja observed the fraught men and smiled graciously. The man blinked at our little Sorcerer.  
  
"Huh?"  
  
Kuja cleared his throat and stood gracefully. "Oh dear, what were you doing down there? I hope you've had a good climb just now?" Kuja spoke politely as if he was an engaging gentleman. Watching the man blink, he lost his patience. Assuming he had said yes, he flashed a dazzling smile with hints of hidden malice.  
  
"Well, why don't you go and have another try then!"  
  
Kuja nudged the top of the metal ladder with the tip of his shoe. As the weigh of the men and Kuja's disturbance added pressure on the ladder, the joints that held it to the wall finally broke. Screws and rusty hinges loosened and fell off. The entire ladder started to topple backwards. The men below screamed with horror as they started to flop.  
  
Kuja cupped a hand to his ears and caught the sound of metal and men crashing onto stone below a moment later. He threw up his arms and cackled with glee ("Mwahahaha..."), his voice ringing out and echoing in the darkness below like the sound of a naughty elf laughing after accomplishing a trick. Feeling accomplished, he then turned around and trotted towards Elfia's direction, - smiling as he did so - the heels of his boots making soft clicking sounds on the pavement.  
  
Elfia had taken herself and the bandit boss into what seemed like a large warehouse on the left. On the right of the street, just opposite the warehouse she was in, stood a large square building. Having went underground and back up, Kuja could no longer tell east from west but he noted that the moon was ahead of him, slightly to the left, above the tin roofs of the warehouse so his intelligent mind told him that he was probably in the Northwestern side of the village. He scampered towards the narrower path outside the warehouse.  
  
Wringing through the narrow gap between the thick, bulky wooden doors, Kuja managed to enter the warehouse. The warehouse was a one storey square building with lots of empty spaces, filled with large crates and hay. Some sands had been scattered on the floor. The ceiling was almost thirty feets above his head. There were only a few small glass panels near the sloped ceiling of the room, so Kuja couldn't see much.  
  
Kuja dug out his little ball of light from the hidden breast pocket inside his clothes and held it over his head so it floats there obediently. Elfia was stuffing the bandit leader into a crate in the corner. He had come to, and she had gagged his mouth with a chunk of rag from the floor. Kuja saw cannons and stacks of wooden crates, and his nose picked out the smell of gunpowder in the air. Nonetheless, he treaded towards the busy girl.  
  
"This is the storage place for ours and seemingly he bandits' fuels," Elfia told Kuja softly, "Just opposite from here, in the big building, is Uncle Cracker's fireworks house."  
  
If something happens, this will be the first place to be levelled by a humongous explosion. Kuja mused, but decided that it was too horrible a thing to say of this village, which to him was not distasteful to deserve that just yet.  
  
The two hid their captive behind several large crates and Elfia pushed out a black cannon with a lot of effort and help by Kuja. Their plan was to blast the band of bandits as they tried to come through the door. Elfia stood on her tiptoes as she cleaned the cannon's interior and rolled in a large metal sphere that was half her size.  
  
Hearing the mob finally approach, she then struck a match and lit the fuse after Kuja did his job by filling in the gunpowders. Then scuttled behind the crates behind the cannon with their hostage, and with their backs against the crates, they covered their ears.  
  
Out of curiosity, Kuja peeped from behind his hiding place, hands still on ears. The mob was trying to force the bulky door open, while the fuse was burned shorter and shorter. To Kuja's horror, the loaded cannon began to lower its mouth under the weight of the cannon ball. At this rate, it will fire the cannon at the floor and everything will be blown up.  
  
Looking to Elfia, who was closing her eyes and covering her ears as if she was a defensive porcupine, Kuja leapt out in a heroic attempt to save them and bomb the mob. At that moment, the mob pulled the doors down and charged towards their direction in the darkness. Although he could see only the dim outline of everything, Kuja found the cannon. Standing under it, he used both his hands to support the cannon and tried his best pushed it back up.  
  
The fuse hissed its last breath, and the cannon blasts out a ground-shaking explosion. 


	6. Fireworks !

Madfantasy: HI !!! I've finally got down to finishing the chapter !! *apologetic* I was really bounded down by my school schedule, but it was strange how the moment I found time to sit down and read a book or two, the ideas come surfacing back into my head again !  
  
Chibi Kuja: who knows if you're just being lazy. (tsks)  
  
Madfantasy: hey ! grr, shoo, off you go to chibi-world ! That's adventure, cannons and lots of SOOT for you !!! *Throws chibi Kuja into the story vortex*  
  
Kuja: Soot ? no way !! *gets thrown* grr ! I'll get you for that ! Nobody throws Kuja !  
  
There, there. And for now, enjoy the story of our feathered, little sized villain, in the bandit-rampant seaside village of Skaerpekoe.  
  
The Feathered Warrior  
  
Chapter 6  
  
The explosion of the cannon vibrated the entire town so that even the grains of sands by the beach outside town quivered, as if the earth was a drum and a giant just took a stick and hit it. If the explosion were not so loud, the clash of glass breaking and screams of men would have been heard. The town and the mountains beyond the forest in the North echoed with the clap of thunder-like roar. Out of the dark night, shrill whistles could be heard, and in a short moment there were rattles in the sky, and gigantic firework display lit the sky in rainbow-colored dances, illuminating the island's tip with their glow.  
  
A black wisp of smoke trailed from the gunpowder warehouse, out from the gaping black hole, which a moment ago was the building's hulking door. Just beyond the opening, a pile of something laid scattered, moaning and grumbling in pain and shock. If this were day, we would see that the bandits lay as if someone had invited them out of the warehouse with a large swinging baseball bat. The first bandit through the door, who was unfortunate enough to be hit by the cannon ball, hung on top of a tall coconut tree. Beneath it was the black sphere, guarding proud and gleaming innocently in the moonlight like a harmless toy.  
  
"Kuja ?" Elfia said, peeping sideways from under her half-closed eyelid to look for her companion. Hearing no reply, she crooned his name again, hearing only the echo of her voice.  
  
She stood and dusted herself. The moon shone from the small glass panels high above the ground, sending shafts of weak silver light into the building which made a lighted passage through the hanging smoke in the air. Silky patches of moonlight were cast upon the floor, looking like mosaics through panels which were broken, shattered or cracked by the explosion.  
  
Elfia peeped out from her hiding place. She had missed the spectacle when the cannon blew up and flew upwards and broke the glass at the back of the warehouse. Where she last saw the cannon was a lump of something black. A patch of moonlight surrounded it like a gentle spotlight, while the soot on the floor wisped around in a sudden gust of night breeze. Catching the moonlight, they glistened like fairy dust as they spun.  
  
The place seemed like the last burnt down stronghold of an empty, dead country, silent and motionless after a war had defeated it. A chip of glass winked in the moonlight and fell off from the panel above, making a clear jingle as it landed and bounced off to the side, out of the dim light. The sound was soft, but it echoed and seemed loud in the deafening silence.  
  
Curious, Elfia stepped out, forgetting that the bandits were there in the first place. She poked the black, soot-covered statue like thing. A black round sphere hovered above it, and it seemed to glow from a few small fissures, where the soot hasn't covered its inside completely. A cough sounded from the thing under it, followed by a puff of black smoke.  
  
"Hey, you alive ?" Elfia nudged the thing as she would any other day. She giggled, then laughed noisily as it opened its eyes, the only place which was still not blackened. It looked like an angry puppet doll came alive, glaring around with vengeance.  
  
Apparently, the statue like being tried to talk, for it opened its mouth and emitted another cough instead, producing another mini cloud of black cloud. Another sound came, this time like a young child who was trying to clear his throat to sound important.  
  
"You DON'T (cough) expect TH (sneeze) IS to daunt the great KUU (cough) ja !!" our courageous and evil feathered sorcerer declared, his arms still up in the air, supporting space that was once cannon. He turned around, eyes darting side to side quickly, suspiciously, and caught sight of the gaping hole in the door. All of a sudden it seemed as if some berserk magic spell had hit him, for he started behaving like a mobile doll gone haywire. "BANDITS !!!" he pointed to the door, shrieked and charged outside like a darting bullet without warning. He obviously didn't realize how loud he was shouting for a loud humming, sizzling and whining was in his ears and head have covered up all other sounds.  
  
"Hee hee ! Black soot-ball !" Elfia laughed as Kuja disappeared through the door, tripping over something which laid beyond it. Looking up through the small glass panels, she saw the fireworks burst into rainbow-colored galas, throwing stars, sparkles, balls of lightning and what not into the violet sky, like dressed participants of a festival throwing out handfuls of silvery paper. She watched a storm of jubilant golden sparks whiz into the sky and fade slowly as they fell, thick smoke columns of the firecrackers illuminated dully by the display.  
  
Meanwhile, Kuja raved about the place, kicking the fallen bandits and shouting for them to stay down as if he was dealing with a horde of rabid hedgehog pies. He went from one to another, oblivious to the glamorous display of fireworks above head, and the fact that the bandits were already down, until he made sure that all of them were down. He then shook his head and wondered where in Gaia that noise came from. He felt as if someone had raked his brains and let it rattled inside his skull for a minute or so. He stopped his rampage abruptly and wondered what had come over him that he had behaved like a mad cat. He stood now, as if the berserk magic spell had wore off all of a sudden.  
  
"Bleh." He said, remarking on how he had disgraced himself. Sitting down in the middle of the pavement, he noticed that the noises in his head had dulled down a bit now. Forgetting that he had made a din just a moment ago, he wiped his forehead like he did when he was big, as if he had just done the lightest menial job in the universe and decided to stop to wipe the non- existent sweat from his brows. He felt some black goo smear on his face, and looked at his palm, frowning. He gasped, not really taking anything seriously, but feeling he should put up the front of a sophisticated sorcerer who ought to be shocked when his garments were soiled. Ah, such is the dainty ways of our charming sorcerer!  
  
Kuja stood and jumped up and down like a feather duster, trying to shake the soot off his clothes. He grumbled to himself on how he must clean his beautiful purple jacket now, and how the black mages would laugh if they saw their master in this unworldly state. Dusting and flapping his sleeves, he looked downright agitated. Meanwhile, the little sphere of light hovered patiently above his head, still covered in dust and looking a little miserable because Kuja have yet to give it a good brush.  
  
All of a sudden, a soft voice, gentle and hard at the same time, pierced the humming in his head and whispered his name. A wave of hushed silence engulfed him. A wave of chill seemed to sweep pass. The humming was dimmed abruptly. He felt the world spin for a fleeting second. It was as if the world had darkened alarmingly for an ephemeral moment, but whether Kuja noticed it, no one knew. He must have, for he steadied himself and shot an apprehensive look upwards.  
  
A sudden touch seemed to shove him roughly back into reality, like pushing someone sleeping into an icy pool of water. It was Elfia, who had poked him in the shoulder. She was behind Kuja all the while he was prancing around. She could not help but grin at his miserable yet oh-so endearing chibi state. She watched him and let him be; knowing by now that he didn't like to be unkempt. She thought he was done the moment he stopped to look up and tapped him on the shoulder, telling him to go home.  
  
"Did you see that ? I mean hear ?" Kuja said, suddenly serious, looking upwards. He looked like an adult. Elfia shook her head instinctively, for she had definitely not heard or saw anything uncommon in the few moments. However, she as a magic practitioner knew that sometimes sorcerers experience bizarre happenings that were meant for them and them to discern only.  
  
She told Kuja that she had tapped him the moment he looked up. She had felt an infinitesimal pang of something, like what magic users feel when something magical was being executed. This she told Kuja too, but she confessed also that the feeling was so quickly it was like a needle sting, and it was gone moments before she realized it was there, and she could barely feel it, let alone figure out what it was.  
  
Kuja lowered his head and lifted a little hand to his chin, thinking hard like an adult now. He pondered about what he had felt a moment ago, but decided that it was best that he interpret it himself, lest the opinions of others jumble and cloud its true meaning. He lifted his face finally, still grayish from the dust. The villagers were moving in to catch the bandits now, and Elfia told Kuja that it was best that they get moving.  
  
Kuja lifted his feathery head and looked once more at the sky, not bothered by the creepy experience, but thinking, thinking about times long passed in Alexandria, where the glamorous fireworks and pyromatics lit the night sky in celebration, where the people parade in galas and celebrate, where there was always life in every alley. He thought about the time long ago, when he gazed down like a hunting hawk from the pavilion at Queen Brahne and the princess during the performance and saw her escape. For a moment, he was powerful again.  
  
"Beautiful fireworks, isn't it?" Elfia said cheerfully, and led the way to bring Kuja to her rightful home in the village. She expects Kuja to ask many questions about the place and his task, some of which she would answer, others she would not know. 


End file.
